Heart of Hiroshima

from：新华网2015-11-19 16:30

[Photo by Sun Ye/China Daily]

Field trips

On my Saturday-afternoon visit to the Peace Memorial Park, I saw at least six primary studentgroups on field trips. They're told about the damaging effects of radiation, blasts and heat raysfrom A-bombs. How the city lost 140,000 lives and was razed to the ground 70 years ago. Whilestanding on their "Ground Zero", they saw relics from the historic day such as charred lunchboxesand scorched clothes, disfigured models with peeled off skin and melted eyes. They gasped.Some fled. And at the end of their tours, strings of paper cranes were presented to the Children'sPeace Monument, in memory of Sadako.

"We would all come to the park starting from a very young age," a passer-by in his 20s told me. "We are shocked. It's fearful."

"What did we learn? No wars. No more fighting anymore."

The Peace Memorial Park, which opened 10 years after the event, is peaceful today. The A-bomb Dome has somehow stripped most of the horror its blackened columns carried. Standingwith its skeletal frame, it's now the serene backdrop to tourists' smiley selfies. The park, withwide alleyways, a clear water passage and woods going golden during my early October visit, isalso the civic square people come pushing kids' strollers.

Its east end opens to Hiroshima's central commercial area, along with its old municipal baseballstadium.

Boisterous city

And on that Saturday afternoon, when I walked to the Shareo area from the packed museum,Hiroshima was a boisterous city - that is, by Japanese standards.

Streets were lively with laughter and talk. One had to watch out not to bump into another skinnyyuppie donning a beanie hat.

Streetcars were crammed with Carp fans wearing their team's bright red baseball caps andjackets. They were heading to the world-class Mazda Zoom-Zoom stadium.

Hiroshima Castle, a short walk away, had families picnicking, throwing frisbees and walkingdogs as their weekend routines.

You could choose to become completely oblivious to the bomb's hypocenter and the tragichistory after turning away from the park.

[Photo by Sun Ye/China Daily]

Except you now have the acute sense that such a happy, peaceful life doesn't come easily.

The designated City of Peace reminds you of the past whichever way you turn.

Shukkei-en, the 17th-century garden of miniature ponds, bridges and hills that showcasesJapanese aesthetics, is rightly admired for its layout. But come close-up to a tree, or a hut andthe plaques would explain how far it was from the hypocenter, whether it survived or not, and howit was finally restored.

It's the same with buildings along Hatchobori: Introductions are about whether or not theywithstood the blast. That clear summer day in 1945 is seared into their history.

Step away from downtown to the suburban Mitaki temple. Amid the green and the famouspassage of Buddha figures, stone tablets describe what was seen from the site on that day.

Traffic hub

Boarding the streetcars, the city's primary means of transportation, you're told the conveniencecame from a nationwide donation in the wake of the tragedy.

As the city picked itself up with help of the national Hiroshima Peace Memorial City Constructionlaw after the war, it regained its place as a traffic hub and one of the most prosperous cities inthe region.

If you lay your eyes on oleander, voted the city flower, you will think of the A-bomb too. It was thefirst flower to bloom after the explosion, when belief was rampant that the land would yield nothingfor 75 years.

Or if you see a message of Mayor Kazumi Matsui on fliers and posters, it's very likely to be this:We're working to abolish nuclear weapons by 2020. For world peace, join up!

I chose to stay in the Pacific Peace Hotel for its location as well as the name, and here is how Irespond to Matsui's call: Go to Hiroshima and take peace to heart.